This invention relates to a shift lever locking device for an automatic transmission of column type.
In one example of an automobile with an automatic transmission, a gear shifting operation is carried out by turning a shift lever installed on the steering wheel column. In the automobile, when, with the shift lever set at a o particular position (such as the P position), the key rotor is set at the LOCK position ("off" position), and the ignition key is removed from the key rotor, it is inhibited to move the shift lever to positions other than the P position; and when the shift lever is shifted to a position other than the P position with the key rotor set at an "on" position (such as the ACC position), it is inhibited to move the shift lever from the position to the P position.
The above-described technique has been disclosed by Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 21172/1974 and Japanese Utility Patent Application (OPI) No. 174330/1981 (the term "OPI" as used herein means an "unexamined published application").
However, the technique thus disclosed still suffers from a difficulty that there is unavoidably an assembling error between the position of a key cylinder in the steering column and the position of the shift shaft one end of which is supported on the steering column.